A woman suspected of murdering her husband and hiding his body for 18 years had left written instructions for a mystery accomplice to dump his remains after her death, it has been claimed.

According to victim John Sabine's eldest son, forensic tests have established that his father's remains were kept indoors for years after he went missing in 1997.

But around the time suspect Leigh Ann Sabine died of cancer six weeks ago, they were moved outside to a garden beside the couple's flat at Beddau, near Pontypridd in Wales.

It was only then that the former fireman's skeleton was found, wrapped in plastic sheeting and showing signs of assault.

Farmer Christopher Sabine, John's son by his first marriage, says detectives have told him they are keen to find whoever carried out Leigh Ann's last request and moved the body.

In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Christopher - who provided the DNA sample that enabled forensic teams to identify his father's remains - said: 'The police were very clear. My father's body was found outside but it had been kept in the flat for 18 years.

'She [Leigh Ann] left written instructions for it to be taken out to the garden.'

He went on: 'There was apparently a man who moved in with her after my father's death. But he vanished after four years and I have no idea who he is or whether he knows anything.'

Christopher also revealed how, in 1956, his late mother, Heather, kicked his father out of their Luton home over his affair with Leigh Ann.

Then, aged just 16, Leigh Ann had been nursing John Sabine in a nearby hospital. He'd sustained serious injuries while serving with the army in the Korean War.

Christopher, 59, from Daventry, Northamptonshire, said: 'My mother told me Leigh Ann just knocked on our door and said: 'Look, I'm pregnant. What are you going to do about it?'

'What mother did was kick my father out. He and Leigh Ann went off to South Wales.

'They went on to have more kids, emigrated to New Zealand, and then eventually settled back in South Wales 30 years later.

'I met my father for the first time in 1986.

'But within six months he was gone and I never saw him again.'

Police believe John and Leigh Ann Sabine returned to Beddau from their life abroad in February 1997.

John disappeared the same year but was never reported as missing and was still listed on the Electoral Register.

A post-mortem examination has revealed he suffered injuries consistent with an assault.

He would have been 85 this year. His wife was 74 when she died on October 30.

Friends and neighbours say they assumed the couple had separated - or that John had died years ago.

Meanwhile, more details are emerging about the couple's chaotic and apparently unscrupulous lifestyle.

By the time they emigrated to New Zealand in the 1960s, they had four children - Steve, Martin, Jane and Susan. A fifth child, Lee-Ann, was born in New Zealand.

Steve Sabine, now 53, who still lives in New Zealand, has told how they were all abandoned by their parents to be brought up in a children's home.

He had no idea about the murder - or even that both his parents were dead - until South Wales Police called him.

'My father was actually a good man, a soft-hearted man,' he said.

'But she was a conniving bitch. I could never forgive him for what he did but I still believe he was manipulated and he fell in love with an evil woman. That was his biggest crime.'

Steve said his parents abandoned him and his siblings in the late 1960s. He believes his father, by then an accountant, had also been arrested in Australia on fraud charges. The Sabines tried to rekindle a relationship with their children in the 1980s but walked away again.

Neighbours in Beddau are believed to have found the remains in grounds at the apartment block.

The area is beside a communal garden which Leigh Ann had tended over the years - organising garden parties and barbecues for her neighbours.

Police have named Leigh Ann as their main suspect. The force said no one was available for comment on the claim that she left written instructions for the disposal of her husband's body.